Abstract

The happiness literature provides evidence on various factors, other than money, that do seem to
contribute to individual happiness. As one explores the produced “happiness economics” literature, it
is direct to understand the difficulty to find proper information on developing countries reality. In our
analysis we investigate the relationship between income, family composition, health and religion over
subjective well-being in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Specifically, we analyze
data from the SABE survey a study conducted among people who are 60 years old or over, in various
Latin American countries. Main obtained results show a positive correlation between higher levels of
income and health, being married and the frequent religion practice and higher levels of subjective
well-being. On the contrary, malnutrition has a negative impact on happiness indicators. In order to
add robustness to our results and to deal with endogeneity issues, this paper uses different indicators
of well-being, alternative estimation models such as a semiparametric one and a propensity score
approach for the treatment of marriage.